Her Chance at Redemption
by Elizabeth Comstock
Summary: She had done things. Things that have given her nightmares to this day. She'd taken so many innocent lives without remorse, sometimes simply for some new clothes. He had done those things. Told her they did what they had to, that they were just survivors, and she believed him for a while. Now he's gone. That little girl is her chance at redemption, and he can't stop her.
1. Prologue

They were all dead. Joel froze for a time, taking in the sight. The Fireflies' corpses were scattered around the floor in messy pools of blood. Shot down by the military, most likely. As Tess and Ellie entered to find the massacre, he stood motionless, conflicted, unsure of what to do with himself. His eyes, bloodshot from increasing lack of sleep over the years, were slightly widened under his brow that furrowed in response to the awful, sickening feeling that grew inside of him, like he had been shot right in the middle of the stomach. His ears blocked out the voices of the others, he felt light headed, and couldn't move.

Tess cursed loudly at the sight, putting her head in her hands to think for a few seconds before looking over solemnly and regretfully at Ellie. The fourteen year old's face clearly showed distress, fear and worry, and she seemed to be frantically suggesting ways for them to fix the problem and get to the Firefly lab in her mind, though none had any chance of succeeding.

"What happens now?" She asked desperately. The two adults were her only means of transportation, so she ended up relying on them for a solution. This needed to be done. Tess inhaled deeply before speaking.

"Ellie, I'm not sure... son of a bitch." She sighed, then crouched down beside the nearest body. "Let's at least just search their bodies, wherever that lab of theirs is, they must have had a map, right?" She attempted to use a calm voice to reassure the panicking Ellie, but such a thing was almost impossible in this situation.

"I-I don't know, maybe." She replied. "But... but are you guys sure you're even up to it? Marlene told me it's pretty far out west. Like, really far west. She said it would take them at least a month to get me there." Guilty jade green eyes glanced between her two escorts, reminding herself that even if they were getting paid for the job, they might not be too keen on a trip across the country. Tess hesitated before looking the girl in the eyes sincerely, nodding slightly.

"I have to do this." Her tone was serious, but reassuring. "If their's any possibility that you're the cure, I have to." She paused, then looked to her partner for his opinion, fully prepared for him to say no. "Joel?" He was still stood there in the open doorway, staring blankly at the corpses with the handle in his tight grasp. He didn't respond. "Joel...?" She called again, eyes narrowing as she stood up. Something was very obviously wrong with him. She knew for a fact that Joel never got this tired after a fight with infected, at least not for this long. His behaviour and body language had been so much more distant to her than she was used to since they'd left the museum. "What the hell are you doing?" After a few more seconds of silence, he looked at her and shook his head.

"I'm not going." His voice was low and somewhat weak; unnaturally unlike him. Tess didn't use the convincing and factual argument she had put together in her head at whim, but stepped closer to him skeptically, scanning his face closely for any indications of illness or something else.

"Joel. What?" She huffed. The woman's patience was wearing thin. He closed his eyes momentarily whilst shutting the door behind them.

"I told you, I'm not going with you. I'm not going anywhere." His voice clearer this time, he made eye contact with her, hoping to send the soul ripping message without having to say it. "This is my last stop."

"The fuck are you-"

"Holy shit." Ellie's voice interrupted as she came to a realisation. That one, brief but significant cry of pain in the museum, the one that stood out among the grunts he had made while being attacked by the runners. The way he acted like that calm moment they both shared before reaching the Capital building was the last he would ever have with someone. How closed off he was to Tess compared to the familiar, trusting while sometimes gruff conversations she heard before. "He's infected." She heard the sharp intake of breath from Tess, and watched her expression shift from impatience to disbelief. Her head shook slowly as Joel's had. The latter just kept staring back at her, having come to terms with his death. But she hadn't.

"Joel." Tess repeated. "Let me see it."

"Tess-"

"Show me the fucking bite!" Her voice rose suddenly in exhausted, desperate anger. She took a moment, then returned the stare into his eyes, tears threatening to fall from her own, and her voice relaxed. "I won't be able to leave you if you don't." With some reluctance, Joel did as he was told, pulling the collar of his shirt away to reveal a repulsive, bloody and inflamed bite just under his throat. "Oh Christ." Tess choked. Saying it was worse than she'd assumed would be an incredible understatement. Looking at what had happened, knowing it was real, was very nearly unbearable.

"Tess, when I... When I was bitten, I thought maybe taking that girl to the Fireflies to make a cure wasn't such a bad idea, and that maybe if I-" Joel stopped, feeling a lump in his throat. "That maybe, just... They could do something to save me. It was a desperate, stupid idea. I wasn't thinking." He glanced at Ellie. "You don't need to do this. Just go home."

"You want me to accept that you're infected, leave you to shoot yourself and not even fucking _try_ to take this chance at a cure?! A chance to redeem myself, Joel?" Tess almost screamed at him. "Don't ask me that."

"I won't let you risk your life over this, it isn't worth it."

"Isn't worth it? We're shitty people, Joel, it's been that way for a long time. And you _know_ I've wanted that to change for a long time."

"We have done nothing wrong, we've just survived!"

"You might see it that way, but you are not taking this away from me. What can you do about it now, anyway?" The last part of her sentence left a cold, depressing silence between them that lasted for what felt like hours. The silence was broken by the sound of vehicles stopping outside the building and the shouting of military soldiers. They'd tracked them down.

"Shit. They're here." Joel was quick to brandish his pistol and check out the windows. He turned back to Tess and Ellie. "You have to go. **Now**."

"Wha- so we're really just leaving you here?!" Ellie protested, looking to Tess expectantly.

"Yes, you are." He replied. "I'll only be able to hold them off for so long, so you both need to run right now if you want to make it to the Fireflies. Tess, take her to Tommy's in Jackson county, you'll figure out how to get there." Tess paused, for a second considering staying to fight them with him and say goodbye, and he could tell from the look on her face. "Just go!" He yelled, making Tess flinch. "Just fucking go."

"...Ellie." She took a few steps back before moving to walk away. "We're leaving."

"But-" The younger girl stopped herself, understanding that if they didn't leave now, they would all be dead. "Yeah." She sighed, and followed Tess through the double doors behind them. Joel watched them leave with tears in his eyes. Turning around to face the entrance the soldiers were soon to bust their way through, and readying himself to shoot and kill as many as possible, he tried to make himself believe that when they were done with him, he would be at peace with his baby girl. He honestly, truly and pathetically wanted to believe it. But he couldn't.


	2. Ch 1: Bill's Town - The Woods

Fresh air. One of life's few luxuries. Feeling winded, Tess sat herself down on a nearby tree stump after exiting the spore-filled subway and removing her gas mask. She and Ellie had managed to make it out of the building and lose the military safely. The redhead had more proof of her immunity by showing Tess that she could breath the spores that inhabited the subway they went through, in addition to revealing her inability to swim, and picking up a torch of her own from a dead soldier. They got around the swimming problem by having Ellie step onto a wooden palette and be helped across to the other side.

"Hey, look. Um..." She began, catching Tess' attention. "About Joel. I don't even know what to-"

"Alright, Ellie, I think we need to go over some rules." Tess spoke firmly. "We don't talk about Joel - ever. Things happen, and you just move on. That's the way the world works. Secondly, if you tell anyone about your... condition, they'll either think you're crazy or shoot you, so don't do it. And lastly, you stay close to me at all times. I'm not letting you put your life at risk. In fact, why don't you just do what I say, when I say it? We clear?" With her hands on her hips, Ellie looked down idly and responded simply.

"Sure."

"Repeat it." Tess snapped, unhappy with the one word answer. Ellie raised her head lazily, but made the effort to look at her.

"One: Things happen and we move on. Two: Don't tell anyone I'm immune; they'll try to kill me. Three: What you say goes."

"Good." The older one nodded, satisfied. She stood up, pointing ahead. "Now, there's a town a few miles north of here. I've got a friend there who owes me some favours. He should be able to get us a car."

"Okay."

"Come on, then. Let's go."

* * *

"Now, there we go..." Tess said upon seeing a familiar landmark in the distance, indicating they were very close to their destination. "Yeah, it'll be faster to go through here." She vaulted over the road's railing into some woods, Ellie following suit. Walking on, she couldn't help but appreciate the serenity and beauty of the place. The sun's warm, orange light gave the lush foliage a soft glow, and made the shallow body of water that lay a few metres away from them sparkle. Ellie seemed very impressed with the sight.

"Man..." She said, stretching her arms as she took in the view.

"What?" Tess asked. "This is your first time walking through the woods, isn't it?"

"Yeah. It's kinda cool." She replied in a cheerful tone.

"Hm. I guess so."

The brief moment of peace between them that Tess assumed the teen spent admiring their surroundings ended when Ellie spoke up about something that had been bugging her.

"Why don't you just take me back to Marlene?"

"Well, what makes you think she's up to the task? I doubt she'd have sent us to do the job if she was."

"What if she's better now?"

Tess sighed. "Look, Ellie, I'm sure Marlene's fine, but the last time I saw her, she was in pretty bad shape even after getting patched up. It'll probably be a couple of months before she can walk properly." She glanced back at her. "Trust me, I'll get you to the Fireflies in one piece." Ellie seemed somewhat pleased with this, and decided to stay mostly quiet while following close behind, greeting the occasional skittish animal they came across. The way she got so excited about these things, particularly how fascinated she was when seeing real fireflies for the first time, made Tess think about the kind of life she must have had before getting bitten. Shut off from the outside for most of her short life until now, only getting vague ideas of the wonders of the outside from stories she might have been told by adults, wanting so much to witness it herself; the sounds, the smell, everything. This all must have felt like some kind of dream to her.

"That you, Bill?" She squinted, spotting a smoke signal against the clouds in the distance.

"Where do you usually meet him?" Ellie asked.

"Hm? Oh, uh, lots of places."

"You ever been here before?"

"I know he lives here. But, ah, no, I haven't ever been here before." Tess explained, picking up some rusty scissors she found lying around, noting that they would come in handy later. Ellie decided to crouch down and looked underneath things for supplies in an attempt to be useful.

"And, that smoke, you think that's him?"

"There's a good possibility."

"M'kay... Do you really think he can get us a car?" She questioned. Tess made a thoughtful expression, and got up, having gathered all she could find.

"He better." Ellie frowned at how vague she was being.

"...And, if he can't?"

"Then, shit." The other said, already walking off towards a fence that had been ripped open.

"Great." Sighed Ellie, trying to catch up with her. She saw her hop down to some lower ground.

"Be careful, now." Tess called. "It's a good drop." The girl acknowledged her warning, sitting on the edge before jumping off. She landed on concrete, and immediately guessed that they were more or less in the town. "Wait." The brunette whispered, motioning for Ellie to do the same. A distinct and instantly recognisable clicking noise echoed throughout the area. The two of them crouched, and headed slowly and cautiously for the gate ahead of them. Once they got there, Tess stood up to open it. "I don't think it can hear us." She informed Ellie. She cursed under her breath when realising it was jammed from the other side.

"Here - boost me up." Ellie suggested. Tess only shook her head.

"I don't think so."

"Well, I can't boost you up. How else are we gonna get over there?" She was reluctant, but gave in.

"Fine then, come here. Gimme your foot. Just don't be runnin' off once you get over." She helped Ellie successfully climb over the gate, and pull the pipe out from the handles.

"Okay. Ta-da." The teen sang as she opened it for her escort, and earned a "good job" from her.

The were certainly in the town now - various shops, cars, post boxes, lamp posts, and all that everywhere, all infested with moss and other plants, as was the concrete ground. The place was void of any human life other than them.

"So, let's say this friend of yours does get us a car. Then what?" Ellie inquired, trotting alongside Tess while she searched the town for supplies.

"Then we go find Tommy, he used to be a Firefly. He'll know where to take you."

"Oh."

"He lives far from here, which is why we need a car."

They found themselves spending quite a long time looking around, partly because Tess wanted to make absolutely sure they picked up everything they needed, and partly because of Ellie's interest with a few of the things they saw. They entered what Tess assumed used to be kind of garden, and the girl went on happily about her fondness for gnomes. When coming across an arcade game, Tess learned that she was interested in those too, and that she enjoyed music when they found a record shop. At some of these things, she couldn't help but crack a small smile. Ellie was a sweet kid. It was almost impossible not to grow on her.

Coming up to a small alley way, the blood curdling clicking emerged again, and the cause of it staggered towards them from around the corner. Before Tess could even reach for her gun, a more than startling explosion blasted the Clicker into pieces when it came into contact with a wire so thin it was barely visible.

"Shit!" Tess cried out, taking a moment to catch her breath and let her heart rate slow down.

"Woah, Nelly! Wha-? What the hell was that?" Ellie exclaimed, just as shaken.

"That..." Tess breathed. "Would be one of Bill's traps."

"Your friend a bit paranoid, maybe?"

"You could say that."

"What's the deal with this guy?" Ellie swung her arms at her sides whilst following Tess through the alley way.

"He used to help us smuggle stuff into the city. He's... He knows how to find things."

"Well, let's hope we don't blow up trying to find him.

"Just watch your step, you'll be fine."

Next to some steps, they saw a body with some unbroken arrows sticking out of his stomach, and Tess promptly stuffed them in her pack incase she came across a bow.

"Geez." Ellie commented. "Bill good with a bow?"

"I'd say he is." Tess confirmed. Picking up a ladder she spotted on the ground and planned to put up against a nearby truck, she saw things like "no trespassers" and "will shoot on sight" written in spray paint on building walls. Like that was going to stop hunters from trying to break in. It was worth a shot, though, she supposed.

Lucky for her, there was a bow and another arrow on top of the truck, leaning on an armchair.

"Hey... Look at that." She mumbled, inspecting it to ensure it still worked.

"Let me use that. I'm a pretty good shot with that thing." Ellie chimed.

"No, no. Let's just leave this kind of stuff to me; I don't want there to be any chance of you hurting yourself." Tess declined, walking across a plank to the roof of a building opposite them.

"Hey, I've used one before. We could both be armed. Cover each other."

"I don't think so."

Once they were both over, Tess used the same plank to cross to another roof, and tested out the bow on a Clicker that happened to be underneath them. Once that was done, she thought it was best to give Ellie a little precaution before she met Bill.

"Now, listen." She started. "Bill isn't exactly the most stable of individuals. So, when we get there, you let me do the talking. You got it?"

"I got it."

"We've gotta be clear on this. Once you meet him, you two aren't gonna be best friends right off the bat. He does not take kindly to strangers."

"Alright."

"Bill's a good guy. He'll just... definitely need some time warming up to you."

After ducking under and destroying a few more deadly wire traps, Ellie began absent-mindedly cleaning her switchblade, waiting for Tess to open the door to a large building for them. When the woman stepped in, her foot landed right in another one of Bill's freaking traps. Within seconds, she was hanging upside-down from the ceiling.

"Motherfucker!" She cursed loudly. "Goddammit, Bill..."

"Here, I got you." Ellie steadied her to stop the swinging, having run in quickly after her. "What just happened?"

"It's another one of Bill's stupid traps!" Tess huffed angrily. Calming down slightly, she could see a fridge a couple of metres away from her - the counterweight - and pointed it out to Ellie, who did as she was told, climbing on top of it and cutting into one of the ropes with her switchblade. It taking such a long time wasn't much of a problem, until the infected came along, graciously announcing their presence by screaming madly.

"Tess?!"

"Shit, here they come." Tess pulled out her revolver, and while being upside-down made aiming a little more difficult, she was able to hold them off long enough for Ellie to cut the rope.

"Fuck!" The latter yelled when the fridge she was standing on fell on its side.

"You alright, Ellie?" Tess called.

"Yeah! Here's some ammo!" Ellie applauded herself in her mind as she was cutting through the second rope for paying extra attention while scavenging. She got to be useful.

The infected kept on coming, and gave Tess the second burden of having to keep them off Ellie, but they got it done. Sadly, she didn't have time to feel relief when she was the right way up again with the ground beneath her feet because a runner tackled her onto her back, viciously aiming its teeth at her throat the very second she fell. Then Bill showed up. Chopped the runner's head clean off with his machete.

"Get off your ass and on your feet." He ordered, holding out an arm to help her up, which she gladly took after pushing the headless man off her. With no time for a reunion, they sprinted off as infected charged after them, and followed Bill through a locked abandoned cleaner's. Not exactly the time for him to forget where he put his keys, but they managed, making it to his safe house... relatively unharmed.

"Man... That was close." Ellie said, breathing heavily. "Uh... thanks for the heroics and all." She looked up at Bill, the large, scruffy-looking, gas-mask wearing man who walked towards her and removed his mask to reveal an old, hairy, face that seemed used to being angry. She held her hand out to shake. "Uh, Ellie." He grabbed it, and took her by unpleasant surprise when he hand-cuffed her to a pipe in the wall. "Hey, what are you- Tess?! What are you doing?!"

"Bill. She's fine." Tess raised her gun at him, though Bill had already done the same. "Neither of us are bit, I can assure you. I keep a good eye on her." She motioned to Ellie. "If I was bitten, I think you'd tell pretty easily by the way I'd be acting. And am I acting like someone who's infected? No. So put the gun down, and let the girl go." Her voice was incredibly calm for someone with a gun pointed at their head. Bill started as if he was about to shout. "Let. The girl. Go." She demanded. Her friend hesitated, that remarkably unhappy expression still engraved into his features, but did as she told him to. "Good boy. You done?"

"Am I done..?" He wasn't pleased. "You come into my house, you set off all my traps... Who the fuck is this punk and what is she doin' here?"

"I am none of your goddamn business, and we're here because you owe Tess some favours-"

"I owe Tess some favours? Is this some kind of joke?"

"I'll cut to the chase. I need a car." Tess explained.

"Well, it is a joke. Tess needs a car." He sharpened his kukri on a table in some form of anger management. "Even if I did have one that works, which I sure as hell don't, what makes you think I'd give it to you? Sure, Tess, go ahead, take my car! Take all my food, too, while you're at it!"

"By the looks of it you could lose some of that food." Ellie commented, taking the opportunity to insult him. Bill threatened her with the blade.

"Now, you listen to me you little shit-"

"No, fuck you! You hand cuffed me to a-"

"Ellie, what'd I say to you before about what to do when you met Bill?" Tess asked, grabbing Ellie gently by the shoulders.

"...Let you do all the talking." She mumbled.

"That's right."

"Whatever favours I apparently owe you, they ain't worth that much." Bill continued.

"Actually, Bill, they are."

"Well, it don't matter, because I don't have one that works."

"But there is one in this town." Tess persisted.

"_Parts_. There are _parts_ in this town."

"Meaning you could fix one up." Bill paused.

"Alright, if we're gonna do this, there's some gear I'm gonna need." He cleared his machete to the side of the table to point out some areas on a map of the town. "It's on the other side of town. Now, you help me go gather it and maybe I can put something together that runs. But after this, I owe you nothing."

"That's fine. I probably won't be seeing you again for a long time anyway."

"Good, follow me." Bill said, picking up his weapon. "Whole goddamn town's booby-trapped. Best stay right on my ass." Another humorous opportunity for Ellie.

"Can't miss it." Tess grabbed her arm, pulling her out the door.

"Knock it off."


	3. Ch 2: Pittsburgh

**Author's note on her being unsure about how roads work:**

Bear with me.

* * *

"Alright. Whatever supplies you may want or need, I suggest you grab them."

"Thanks Bill. Ellie, take a look around, see what we can use."

"Alrighty."

Ellie wandered around cheerfully, and was more keen on playing around with a chess set she saw on a diner table, but did end up picking up a rag or two. Once she'd grabbed some blades, binding, ammo, a training manual and a pipe, Tess made her way over to Bill.

"Found everything you need?" He asked, opening the door for them and walking ahead.

"We're good." Tess nodded, following him. She closed the door behind Ellie at Bill's request.

"We have to cross to the other building, up the stairs. Let's move it."

"Psh."

"Ellie." Tess sighed irritably. Along the way, Bill had started talking to himself.

"You weren't kidding about him." Ellie half-whispered.

"Yeah, he's one of a kind." Tess responded just as Bill was done telling himself off.

"So, what kind of trouble are you in?" He asked. "Where the hell's Joel?"

"It's just a job. A simple drop off."

"What are you delivering? That little brat?"

"Haha. Fuck you too." Ellie retorted. Bill laughed.

"Y'know, I hope you know what you're doin'."

"Are you kidding me with this guy?" Those two certainly weren't going to be friends any time soon.

"Where are we going, Bill?" Tess carried on, trying to stop the insults.

"My other safe-house. It's more of an armoury."

"Wait, I thought we were gonna fix up a car." Ellie cut in.

"_We_? You know how to fix up a-"

"Bill. Just..." Tess refrained from yelling at them both.

"It's like I said, what I need is on the other side of town. Now, that side I don't ever go to because it's filled with infected. So we're gonna need guns."

At the bottom of the stairs, she heard the noise of infected, and didn't hesitate to brandish her gun.

"Shhh. There's infected inside."

"Oh. I've been meaning to take care of that for a while. Relax, it's nothin'."

Ellie was about to question him saying "relax" when talking about infected, until she saw the runner trapped in a boarded up window.

"So, you didn't answer my question about Joel. I mean, I thought the two of you were inseparable." Bill enquired.

"He didn't want to come." Tess answered curtly. It wasn't a lie.

"Yeah, sure..." He swung his Kukri down into the runner's neck, taking two swings to cut through. He kept talking the whole time. "Sounds to- ...me... Like there might be trouble in paradise."

"Yeah, something like that." Ellie noticed the melancholy tone in Tess' answer, and felt an urge to say something to make her feel better, even if it was just a simple apology, but remembered rule number one.

"Alright... Here we go." Bill said, opening the door wide for them.

"So, why don't you just fix up one of these cars?" Ellie asked once they were outside, gesturing to the many broken down vehicles around them. Of course, this only got her sarcasm from Bill.

"Oh my God, you're a genius." He began. "I mean, the whole time, why hadn't I thought about fixin' one of these cars?" Tess pinched the bridge of her noise.

"Okay... Don't be a dick."

"Their tires are rotted and their batteries are dead."

"Are you done?"

"Can't even begin to think what the inside of the engine blocks look like. Only ones making new car batteries are the military."

Having a discussion about cars - perfect time to be ambushed by a horde of infected. Much to her dismay, Tess ended up being the most injured due to it taking too long for her to reload her rifle after every shot - she made a mental note to upgrade it with whatever parts she could find the next chance she got - and the attack's very existence resulted in Bill scolding himself again.

"Okay, well now he's talking to himself." Ellie stated.

"Yeah... Bill?" Tess called him.

"Tess? This way." He replied, opening a gate, locking it behind them and walking up the stairs in front of them. "And up we go."

"You picked a hell of a place to hole up, didn't you?" Tess remarked in reference to the infected horde.

"You know, as bad as those things are, at least they're predictable. It's the normal people that scare me. You of all people should understand that."

"What does that mean?" Ellie asked.

"Nothing."

* * *

"Well, here we are. You. Don't touch anything. And you close the door." Bill instructed as they walked down the steps of the cellar that was his safe-house. He lit an oil lamp to give them light. "Let's gear up." Ellie moved towards the guns, only to be stopped by Tess.

"No."

"What? I need a-"

"I said **no**."

"Tess, come on. I can handle myself."

"No." Tess patted her shoulder as if to hold her in place before moving on. "Just stay here, alright?"

"Fine." Ellie grumbled, stepping towards some shelves to find something to do. "I'll just wait around for you two to get me killed."

"Well, this goes on record as the worst fuckin' job you've ever taken." Bill commented.

"That's a little harsh." Tess said, leaning on the defensive side for Ellie.

"How the hell is Joel okay with this suicide mission?"

"Actually, he advised against it."

"Really? And you didn't listen to him? Well, I guess you're not as smart as I thought you were."

"Mhm."

"Seriously, you gotta take that kid back to where you found her."

"Bill, I can't just take her back."

"Then send her packing, let her find her own way. Let me tell you a story. Once upon a time, I had somebody that I cared about." He stopped. "It was a... partner. Somebody I had to look after. And in this world, that sort of shit's good for one thing. Gettin' ya killed. So you know what I did? I wisened the fuck up. And I realised it's gotta be just me."

"Bill, you don't understand... It isn't like that-"

"Bullshit. It is just like that. Hey!" He shouted at Ellie, who was fiddling with a stack of magazines and comics. "What'd I say to you when we walked down the steps? What'd I say?"

"I'm just fixing your stupid pile."

"Don't touch."

With little patience left, but nothing left to say, all Ellie did was flip him off.

"Goddammit. You keep babysitting long enough and eventually it's gonna blow up in your face."

"Bill." Tess groaned. "Can we please just get on with it?"

"Fine." Bill threw her one of the shotguns he had been preparing while telling his story. "Let's get on with it."

* * *

And get on with it, they did. Bill showed Tess how to make nail bombs, which turned out to be particularly useful against the Clickers - or most kinds of infected, actually - they encountered on their way to find the battery for Bill's car. It turned out it wasn't where it was supposed to be, and had been put inside a different car by Bill's deceased partner, Frank, in another building, that just needed a little push to help it get going. This wasn't an easy task either, due to the pesky infected that kept running at Tess and Bill while Ellie had the luxury of being in the driver's seat. Not that she didn't need protection from them at all. Tess drove off with Ellie, leaving Bill to continue living in solitude, and in retrospect, the whole thing was just another day of surviving. Ellie, someone relatively new to the experience, was overwhelmed with relief when she got to just sit back in the truck and read.

"Oh, man." Ellie's sudden complaining made Tess jump slightly, pulling her out of her thoughts and preventing her from dozing off. She glared at her in the rear view mirror.

"Hey. Go back to sleep." Ellie ignored her, continuing to talk about her comic.

"Okay. I know it doesn't look like it, but this here is not a bad read. Only one problem." She flipped it to the last page. "Right there. 'To be continued!' I hate cliffhangers..." Tess raised her eyebrows.

"You steal that from Bill?"

"Uh... No."

"Uh-huh."

"Okay, maybe I did. But, I mean, all this stuff was just lying there."

Tess held back a smile. "What else did you get?" Ellie grinned, reaching into her backpack.

"Well..." She pulled out an old tape. "This make you all nostalgic?" Tess took it, and scoffed when she saw the title.

"Nope." She held it out for Ellie to take, only to have it pushed back.

"Come on, play it!"

"Alright..."

Once she heard it, though, Ellie's face was a little less excited.

"Well, better than nothing." She reached back in her bag to take out a magazine. "Oh. I'm sure 'your friend' will be missing this tonight."

"Mhm." Tess replied, oblivious of and uninterested in what she was talking about.

"Light on the reading, but it's got some interesting photos."

Oh.

"Uh, Ellie, that's not for kids..."

"Woah!" Ellie exclaimed at a poster she found in it. "How the hell would you even walk around with that thing?" Tess reached back, trying to taking it away from her.

"Give me that, just-"

"Hold your horses, I wanna see what all the fuss is about." On the next page, she looked confused. "Oh. Why are these all stuck together?"

"Um..."

She started laughing.

"I'm just fucking with you." She closed the magazine, opened the window and threw it away. "Bye-bye, dude!" She climbed into the front passenger seat. "You know what? This isn't that bad." She said, turning up the volume.

"Sure." Tess chuckled. "Why don't you try to get some sleep?"

"Pfh - I'm not even tired."

By the time they got to Pittsburgh, Ellie had been asleep for a while, and was just waking up. As luck would have it, the highway was blocked with cars, trucks, etc.

"Well, shit." Tess mumbled, pondering on what to do.

"Now what?" Ellie yawned. It took a bit, but eventually, Tess deduced that they weren't going back and they weren't going down.

"We're walking."

"What? Are you sure?"

"Yeah. Out." She opened the car door for Ellie after getting out herself, and pointed ahead at a bridge far off in the distance. "You see that bridge over there? That's where we're goin'." Ellie nodded.

"So, are we going down, or..."

"Straight ahead. Climbing over cars should be no big deal."

"Wait, we're just leaving the truck here?" Tess looked back at it and sighed.

"As much of a waste it is, we have to. Listen, Ellie..." She started walking, motioning for Ellie to follow. "There are these, uh, pretty big groups of people who live in abandoned quarantine zones like the one in this city, and kill anyone they see to take all their stuff. They're called hunters."

"Oh."

"While going this way is probably just as dangerous, the roadblock is obviously to direct us down there into an ambush."

"Right." Ellie said. She hopped down off of a second car, and shimmied through a branch-filled gap between another two after Tess. "Ouch… um, so… Agh."

"What is it?" Tess seemed unaffected by the pricking twigs.

"So, you talked like you _knew_ there were hunters around here, and how the whole ambush thing was gonna play out. Have you been here before, or something?"

"Ah, yeah… something like that."

"Okay…" Ellie could easily guess there was something she wasn't being told from the words "something like that", but chose not to ask about it anymore. If Tess was saying the same thing she told Bill when being asked about Joel, it was probably a touchy subject. "Pfh… I think it's time to lighten the mood." She pulled a thin book from one of her backpack's pockets. "Why was the Jack-o-lantern having an existential crisis?"

* * *

"You did **not** ride a horse."

"Hey, I'm serious! Riley told her friend Winston to teach me if she brought him some whiskey."

"Sure, sure..." Tess smiled sarcastically, and continued to listen to Ellie's stories of her life in the zone while they savoured their canned food. It had been a long day of walking, climbing over cars, and getting scratched by branches while listening to jokes the whole time. They eventually made it to a small, empty neighbourhood by sundown, and decided to stay the night in one of the houses, settling down in an upstairs bedroom. Surprisingly for Tess, they didn't run into any hunters on their way. And while they had a time to relax and talk, she kept her ears wide open for any suspicious noise, knowing that they couldn't be entirely safe. There were hunters in this city. She was sure of it.

"What was your life like, then?" Ellie asked with a mouthful of peaches. "Y'know, before the world went to shit?"

"I used to live in a place like this. Grew up with my dad, and I had two brothers. They got into a lot of fights, so the house was almost always noisy. I was a pretty shy kid, but, by the time I was about your age, I got sick of it, and ended up good at telling people to shut up and do what I say. I used to hate them, but... I guess their constant shouting changed me for the better."

"So, when the infection hit... did your whole family come with you to the quarantine zone?"

"Okay."

"Too much...?"

"Too much."

"Alright... sorry."

"That's okay." Tess handed her the remains of her own food and stood up, picked up her rifle and bow, and sat over on a bed next to the window. "Eat up." She said. "When you're done, get some sleep. I'll keep watch." Ellie quickly finished up her dinner and wrapped herself up in the duvet she'd taken from the bed. She laid down on her side, but spoke before closing her eyes.

"Um, Tess... I know I already said it before, but thanks. For everything. I'm really glad Marlene picked you."

Tess smiled. "You're welcome."


	4. Ch 3: Keeping Watch

Tess cursed herself for using the clichéd phrase, "it's too quiet" in her head. Maybe she was being overly suspicious, she didn't fucking know. She'd been up for much too long. At least, long enough for her body to start protesting copiously, as if she'd never kept watch before. Perhaps all those sleepless nights were catching up to her, but, if so, it didn't matter. Her eyelids were heavy, her grip on her bow was forcing itself to loosen and she kept coming too close to nodding off, that was what mattered. For a bit, she'd only thought of it as a small price to pay, but now it was getting troublesome. That was it. She had no choice.

"Ellie, wake up." She whispered, lightly shaking the young girl's shoulder. "Ellie."

"What's going on?" Ellie asked, rubbing her eyes with a long yawn.

"It's your turn to keep watch. Now, get up." Tess pulled the duvet off of her and pulled her to her feet, leading her gently to the window. "You know how to drive a car. D'you know how to use a rifle?"

"Yeah, sort of." Ellie beamed, not at all bothered by being woken up in the middle of a lovely dream. She was quite pleased with the responsibility and trust she was receiving. "I used to shoot at rats."

"Rats?"

"With BBs."

"Okay, well, it's the same basic concept. Can we just go over it to make sure you'll be alright with me leaving you to do this?"

Ellie nodded, and they affirmed that she knew how to reload, and that she was prepared for it to kick if she ever had to shoot.

"Now, you mentioned before that you were a good shot with this, right?" Tess handed her the bow. "If you see any hunters down there who try to get in, this is the first thing you use. If they see you, that's when you use the rifle. If any of them get inside, slap me awake if you have to. Arrows and ammo are over there."

"Got it."

"Okay... Everything's fine." She nodded to herself, before walking quietly over to the duvet.

"Don't worry." Ellie assured her with a confident smile. "I got this."

See, Tess? She's got this. Everything'll be just fine, you've got nothing to worry about.

Lying down on the carpeted floor with the duvet over her, Tess repeated reassuring thoughts over and over in her head to lull herself to much needed sleep.

We're going to get to the bridge. We're going to get to Tommy's. We're going to get to the Fireflies. We're going to save the world. Undo all that I've done.

That worked.

* * *

"P-p-please, y-you can't just k-kill us! W-we can make this wo-worth your while!" The poor man was utterly terrified, stumbling over most of his words; he and a couple of his friends had been caught, tied up and brutally beaten by Pittsburgh's hunters when they were trying to escape them for the third time today after entering their territory and stealing a bunch of their supplies. They had come in a group of four, but one of them shoved all the supplies in their pack and left them for dead. Two of them were still loyal to the one who left, and said nothing, but this one wasn't.

The very hunter who had managed to catch the remaining three raised the blood covered pipe over their shoulder, making him flinch in fear of being hit again.

"How about you go ahead and just tell us where your friend went. I don't want to have to hurt you again."

"B-but-"

"**Hey**. No buts. You're makin' a simple situation more difficult than it has to be. Just tell us where our stuff is, and we'll let you free." A lie.

"C'mon, y-you can just... let us go now, a-a-and we'll l-lead you to our friend, a-alright?"

The hunter shook her head, pulled out a gun and pointed it in his face.

"That is a stupid idea."

Bang, bang.

"So, the rest of you wanna tell us where our stuff is?"

Judging by the silence, apparently not.

"Forget it, Tess. We've been at it for hours. They ain't telling us shit." The hunter's comrade sighed. "Just kill 'em and take their clothes."

"You sure?"

"Just do it."

"...I suppose I could do with a new jacket for the winter." Tess huffed, and shot the other two in the head. She killed them like it was nothing, just as she had with so many others; it was her way of life now. The only way to survive in this piece of shit world. She was only doing what she had to, right? That's what they told her.

* * *

Ellie had an odd, but good feeling in her stomach. She had only been given this position of authority fifteen minutes ago, and she already knew she liked being in charge. Back in the zone, she had always been following someone else, be it Riley or Marlene, she was always the passenger. And she had gotten used to that. But now, being given the responsibility of protecting another person's life - that was exciting. She almost wished for a hunter or two to come along so she could shoot them down, saving the day, and Tess would be so proud of her that she might let her have a gun of her own to fight with.

She looked back at Tess, the person whose peaceful breathing happily maintained the position of the only noise in the room.

She felt a little guilty about accepting her food.

Even after that brief description of her childhood, Ellie found herself wondering about the kind of person Tess was. She acted so determinedly to get her to the Fireflies, like her own life was at stake - which, in some inadvertent way, it was. Ellie's safety was the foremost thing in her mind. At times she seemed desperate. Ellie assumed this to all be motivated by her wanting redemption for the horrible things she had apparently done. Her desperation was for herself, not Ellie. But, Joel was the exact opposite, and she guessed he would have needed to do awful things to survive. He acted like it. He told Tess to go home, that they'd done nothing wrong.

The thing that really bothered Ellie about this was whether or not she would end up doing things that bad. If she would ever have to leave someone behind so that she could live, to kill an innocent for her own benefit.

No, she was doing the right thing. She only killed people who tried to kill her.

Ellie's eyes drifted to her right arm. The arm that had been bitten. It was covered by her undershirt's long, black sleeve, but she couldn't ignore it whenever it became irritated by the fabric. She let go of Tess' bow, and let her hand travel to the hem of her sleeve. She was scared to look at it now; what if if had gotten worse? What if she wasn't really immune, and the infection was just taking longer to take over her? It terrified her. She had to know. Ellie closed her eyes and yanked her sleeve up.

Not ready yet.

She waited a few seconds. And waited. And waited.

Eventually, her doleful green eyes pried themselves open, one after the other. It looked exactly the same. In fact, it seemed to be in the slow process of healing.

But, Ellie was no doctor. How would she know?

Ellie turned back around towards the window and blocked out any thoughts that could give her doubt or put her in a bad mood. She could deal with that stuff when it was Tess' turn again. At the moment, such things would just distract her.

Sitting completely still for half an hour made her butt start to hurt, and she twisted around to adjust her position. For just a small movement, the bed creaked rather loudly underneath her.

"The hell was that?"

"What? You hear somethin'?"

"Yeah. It came from upstairs. Wanna go check it out?"

"Don't bother. The place is fallin' apart, it was probably nothing."

"Fine, fine. Let's go up there anyway. See if we can find anything useful."

_Shit_. When the fuck did they get here? Did she really spend so long getting sentimental about Tess?

Remembering what she said, Ellie held both weapons in her arms along with the ammo and arrows, and tip-toed over to wake her, but she was already up. Must have been a light sleeper. Tess had just finished pulling her backpack on, and carefully handed Ellie hers in exchange for her own things. She moved over to the door, and stood patiently next to it with her back against the wall, pistol ready. Just in case, though, as she planned to do this quietly. Ellie stood closely beside her, feeling slightly disappointed that she wasn't given a gun, but placed her faith in Tess.

They waited for ages, listening to the two hunters' quiet arguments about sharing bacon, and then whether or not they needed new clothes while they searched other rooms. A bead of sweat trickled down Ellie's forehead. These guys already creeped her out, with the knowledge of no matter how friendly they conversed with each other or how casually they argued, they wouldn't hesitate to kill them to steal their things. Or worse. She may have been only fourteen years old, but Ellie knew what torture meant for women in this world.

Tess was fixed in place like a statue, focusing her hearing to create some vague idea of where they each were. She heard the shuffling of feet coming from one of the rooms opposite, and a drawer opening, followed by the rustling of fabric. At the same time, heavy footsteps got louder, then stopped.

"I'm gonna look in here, alright?"

"'Kay, don't take too long. We're leavin' soon."

The footsteps started again, getting closer, closer...

Just a little bit more.

Click. The door handle twisted, and a sick-looking man stepped in. He didn't look sick in the sense of immorality, more like he was suffering from malnutrition or some other disease. His stuffy eyes were squinted, his mouth was wide open to let a yawn out, and his hand moved to cover it.

His friend was still in the other room. He might have been able to hear something, but not much.

Tess grabbed the hunter and sent a shiv deep into his throat without a second thought. As he made his final choked, gargling noises, she slowly set him down on the floor so not to make any noise.

"Hey, you find anything?"

The drawer closed, and more footsteps came towards them.

"You okay in here...?"

He leaned in through the doorway, and just as his eye caught the sight of his friend's corpse, he met the same fate.

"Alright, c'mon, Ellie." Tess glanced back to ensure she was still there, and took off down the stairs.

"Was that the last of them?" Ellie asked in a low voice in case there were any more.

"In this building, as far as I know. There could be more around."

And it turned out there were.

Tess seemed to know where she was going, but Ellie found it difficult to see in the dark, and they had to keep their flashlights off so not to be seen.

They managed to sneak into another house, but the hunters had already found the bodies, and were looking for them.

A couple walked by the house's broken windows, one of them crooning, "come out, come out, wherever you are."

"So fucking creepy..." Ellie whispered, peeking up from the kitchen counter she and Tess were hiding behind temporarily.

"Shhh." Tess pulled her down by the arm, and had a finger placed on her lips. Ellie nodded.

Right. Be quiet.

More waiting.

Her arm started to itch again.

Expecting Ellie to follow, Tess half-opened the one window in the house that wasn't broken and climbed through.

Ellie's attention was on her arm. She pressed down on it over her sleeve, not wanting to scratch it in fear of the mutated scab - if you could call it that - falling off, and trying to stop the itching some other way. It didn't help at all, the most it did was make it more itchy.

Ellie sighed, and looked up, but Tess wasn't where she was supposed to be.

"Tess?"

She got to her feet, and was about to run off to go find her. That was when two arms wrapped themselves around her neck from behind, and began to choke her out, lifting her off the ground.

"I got her!" A male voice shouted triumphantly. Ellie couldn't see who it was, nor did she care. She was running out of air, and was frantically kicking around and pulling at the man's arms, but he was too strong.

Her switchblade.

She moved one arm to grab at it wildly, but she was dizzy, tired and had no idea where anything was anymore.

She blacked out.


	5. Ch 4: Alone and Forsaken

Ellie had never been one to back down easily. She couldn't recall a time when she was willing to just give up without a fight. Marlene had told her she took after her mother an awful lot in that respect. As such, she got herself in bad situations more often than not.

Even when her life was in the balance, Ellie refused to give in, especially when she had a goal in mind. And it was this stubborn nature of hers that put her in the position of hiding behind a counter to take cover from a slightly more than pissed off hunter who was armed with a shotgun and an axe, because she refused to take up his bullshit offer of joining them. What's more was she had no way of defending herself - her backpack and switchblade had been taken off her.

She'd woken up in a dark room with a headache and a bruised throat after hearing a conversation about what was to be done with her. She considered that it was a dream at the time, but now she's not so sure. After remembering she needed to find Tess, Ellie scrambled to get up, and fell off of whatever metal table object they put her on and flat on her backside. The noise alerted the hunter nearest, who cornered her before she could get away, and gave her the offer. She guessed he had let his guard down because she was a young girl without any weapons, but whatever the reason, it turned out the same; she acted like she was considering it, slowly stood up, grabbed a glass bottle that was conveniently on the cabinet next to them and smashed it into his face. She then pushed the screaming man aside to run out the door into the kitchen he had entered from, and ran behind the closest piece of furniture she could see.

And there she was, hiding from an aggravated man capable of killing her in an instant, with no weapon of her own whatsoever.

The hunter stood by the doorway with his axe brandished and his breathing rapid. Small pieces of glass still stuck out of his face, blood dripping from each cut.

"I gave you a chance, little girl. What you shoulda done was just played along, given _me_ a chance." He bellowed, making wild gestures with his axe as he spoke. "But, _no_. You just had to go and smash a _fucking_ bottle in my _fucking_ face! And now, I gotta kill you!"

Ellie scanned the room for an exit, and found one on the other side of the room. It was open. But, if she tried to run out of cover now, he'd see her. And there were no bottles or bricks around for her to throw as far as she could see.

Fuck.

On the bright side, the hunter didn't know where she was. Of course, that didn't mean he had no chance of finding her. He knew very well she was in the room.

Fuck.

She started panicking.

What if the guy chopped her head off with his axe like Bill did to that runner? What if they'd found Tess as well? What if they decided to keep them both and do horrible things to them? How the _fuck_ was she supposed to get out of this?

"No point in tryin' to run now. I'm gonna find you. And I'm gonna snap your little neck like a twig."

She heard him take a few steps towards her hiding spot. They seemed unsure, and stopped rather quickly, but, still.

Fuck.

Ellie was sweating, her arm was itching, her feet wanted desperately to run to the door even though it'd get her killed, and her brain was filled with unbearable numbers of plans to get past the hunter. Only one stuck out.

It was a long shot, but she was about to die anyway, so she gave it a go.

She coughed. Gave away her position.

The hunter's head snapped towards the sound, and he promptly began walking towards her.

"You got a cold, little girl?"

He sounded like he was coming to the right of her, so she slowly and carefully crawled around the counter in the opposite direction until she could see his back turned to her. Ellie took the opportunity to then move to another counter behind them. She was now a reasonable distance away from him, and a bit closer to the exit.

Good.

The plan looked like it was going to work, so, having no other option, Ellie stuck with it.

She repeated the actions again and again from different places, and the hunter almost caught onto what she was doing, so she had to make variations such as _accidentally_ letting him see the edge of her shoe or some of her hair. He was getting more agitated every time. But, she was getting there, and that was what mattered.

* * *

The exit was right there. After ages of coughing and pretending to slip up, she was there. Ellie peered out of cover slightly just to check that the hunter was where she'd led him, far enough away not to hear any small noises, with his back turned to her.

She crawled quickly through the doorway into the next room, closed the door, saw a crowbar on the floor and used it to jam the door without hesitation.

Ellie almost gave a tired smile as she felt a heavy weight being lifted off her shoulders. She wasn't entirely safe, but for now, she was safe from him.

She was still quite creeped out by him. He said creepy things, walked in a creepy way, and had a creepy face. She dreaded the fact that she'd probably come across more of them.

She wasn't out yet, and needed to move.

The exit Ellie had gone through led to another bit of kitchen, which, due to her apparent tremendous luck, contained some of the hunters' food. She presumed it to be their lunch.

Well, it was her lunch now. She stuffed as much as she could into her mouth without a second thought. She would have taken it all if she had her stupid backpack with her.

* * *

Ellie carried on cautiously through the place that she later found out to be a hotel, forced to use nothing but her wits and the occasional bottle to get past the hunters until she found her things in a storage room. She took the other stuff that was in there with her too.

She knew it all belonged to other survivors. But they must have been dead by then. It wasn't stealing, she told herself. She did what she had to.

When she had it back, Ellie started to stealthily kill any hunter she could or had to with her switchblade. And took a pistol off of one of the men. Tess wouldn't approve, but it was for emergencies only. She'd just... throw it away when she got back to her.

Ellie frowned when she thought about Tess again.

What if they really had gotten her? Of course, Tess was more than capable of taking care of herself, right? Yeah. It was insulting to consider anything bad happened to her.

* * *

Tess swung the pipe in the hunter's head with tremendous force, the scissors she'd bound to it digging through his skull and into his brain, killing him instantly. Once that was done with, she bent over with her hands on her knees, panting heavily, only for a few seconds though. That wasn't the last of them. After she caught her breath, she ran behind one of the hotel rooms' cabinets and waited for some to come along, taking her pistol out once again in case anything went wrong. They knew she was around, but not exactly where, so she had a chance of taking them out quietly.

After some minutes of waiting, she heard one of them slowly and cautiously walking by her hiding spot. She looked up for a split second, and, seeing him faced away from her and out of any other hunter's field of view, she pulled out her last remaining shiv, grabbed the hunter and shoved it into his throat. He was quiet enough not to alert anyone else, and was set down carefully on the carpeted floor. Looking at his face as she put him down, Tess' eyes narrowed. She recognised him. Stan, she thought his name was.

The person she used to torture tourists with. To think he was still alive after all this time.

She kicked him in the side lightly, the very opposite of remorseful about killing him.

Fuelled by the sight of an old headache's face, Tess was much less merciful in taking the rest of them out. She used bombs as well as her arrows, and let them gaze at the bloody corpses of their friends before choking them to death.

If those bastards had done anything to Ellie, she wouldn't leave any one of them alive. She now planned to catch the few remaining hunters in the room, and beat her location out of them. She was going to find that girl by any means necessary.

* * *

Ellie arrived on a floor where the actual rooms of the hotel were. She was close to getting out, but the place was crawling with hunters. And they knew where she was.

She accidentally bumped into a trashcan, it rolled over, made some noise, and that was that. She hadn't even used the pistol until then.

She was forced into a fight, which started off in her favour as she managed to get some head shots in, killing quite a few of them. But there were still a lot, and she didn't have many bullets left, nor did she have a chance to grab any off the dead bodies before the fight was over.

Ellie stood against the wall by an open door. She saw one hunter stick his head out from the couch he was using as cover, and shot blindly several times in that direction. A stupid idea. Every shot missed.

Ellie was tired, injured and anxious. She was outnumbered and outgunned. She couldn't keep it up any more, and needed someone to help her. She needed ammo. She needed supplies to patch herself up. She needed them all to just die. She needed to sleep.

She also needed to reload.

She sighed in exhaustion and began to do so slowly. She really couldn't keep it up any longer. She almost collapsed, right then and there. She almost did.

But those gross, hairy arms wrapped themselves around her neck like before. She hadn't seen the hunter; she was too busy feeling sorry for herself.

This woke her right up.

Like before, she kicked around, pulled at the man's arms, but he was too strong.

**No**.

She could not let this happen to her again. They would kill her this time. They would kill her immediately.

Ellie opened her mouth wide, and bit down on the hunter's arm. She bit down _hard_.

He yelped in pain, and let her go by reflex, grabbing his arm with the other as he cursed and wailed, repeatedly calling her a 'bitch'.

Ellie grabbed her switchblade as soon as he did this, and pounced on him, stabbing him in the neck many a time until she was sure he was dead. She knew she had no time to spare, and searched him for whatever bullets he might have had on him, praying to whatever jackass of a deity that might up there that they would just fit in her fucking pistol.

He didn't have shit.

Now she was angry.

* * *

The girl shot two in the head before all her gun did was click. But she didn't lose to them. She got them all.

There were bricks and bottles alike spread around the hotel for her to use. Ellie had a pattern; pick up the thing, throw it in their face, shove the knife in their throat. And it worked out pleasantly for her. When it came to the last one, all she had to do was creep up on him and stab him from behind.

She was still heavily wounded, though, and did collapse right then and there when she had killed them all. Her face and clothes were soaked in more of her blood than theirs, and she was pretty sure that was a bad thing.

After a few minutes of recollecting herself, Ellie got up and scoured the area for supplies. She picked some pistol ammo off some of the guys she killed, and found some rags and alcohol in some bathrooms, which she used to make herself something to wrap up her wounds. She was feeling a little better, while still caked in blood, but she could get cleaned up once she got back to Tess.

That's right. She was looking for Tess.

* * *

Ellie was nearly out now. She was in another cafeteria area. She had to take care of more guys, but it was nothing she couldn't handle.

She pushed a ladder up to get to some higher ground. After doing so, she looked up towards one of the windows in the room. Sunlight shone through, indicating that it was day time. She didn't know how long she'd been out when they caught her, but it felt like she'd been awake for days. She was just so tired. But, the way things are, Tess would just have them keep walking until night time.

Ellie sighed, and gazed down at herself in the shallow pool of water underneath her.

She really looked like shit.

Most of her face was dirtied with dark, dried blood as were the ripped areas on her clothes where it had seeped from her deeper injuries. Accompanying the blood were dark bruises on her neck and around her incredibly weary eyes. Her auburn hair was even more of a mess than usual, falling out of the ponytail and sticking out in every direction.

Another sigh.

They would definitely need to find new clothes for her.

Ellie moved away from the hideous image that was her reflection and climbed up the ladder. She was sure this way would lead outside.

She reached the top, and began to push herself up when she met eyes with _him_. The same creepy fuck whom she'd supposedly run away from successfully. There he was, staring down at her maliciously with bloodshot eyes. He found a way around.

"Looks like it's the end of the road, you little bitch."

He kicked her in the chest, sending her and the ladder falling hard on the ground below, Ellie landing in the water, more or less on her butt for the second time today. The drop wasn't high enough to kill her, but it hurt like hell.

The hunter jumped down himself and stomped over to her. He wasn't afraid that she might try to kill him, even though she had her pack.

Ellie recovered and fumbled for her pistol when she saw him moving towards her, only to have it yanked out of her grasp and thrown to the side by him when she got it out.

The hunter kicked her in the gut a couple of times to make sure she wouldn't be moving before kneeling down in front of her with his own gun out. He grabbed her by her ponytail and forced her to look at him, eyes bulging.

"You killed my friends, bitch." He yelled in her face. His voice cracked slightly as he spoke, and it was so loud that it made her ears sting. "You killed my fuckin' family! Give me one good reason why I shouldn't crush your tiny skull right here. Go ahead, give me one."

Ellie had no answer for him, so she stayed silent.

He inhaled, stood up again, and kicked her in the gut once more.

"You know what?" He said, pinning her down on the floor.

Ellie's breath hitched.

"It's pretty funny, isn't it?" His hands wrapped themselves around her neck.

No.

Ellie's switchblade was underneath her. She needed a gun.

Her arm stretched out for the pistol. She couldn't see it but she knew it was there.

"All those men... Those people who used to have happy fuckin' lives, jobs, and families..." They started to tighten.

No.

Her arm stretched itself as far as possible, grabbing at anything that might have been there.

"Those people who survived in this hell for, what? Two decades? Those people I lived with... Those people who became _my_ family," They tightened more, and more.

No.

She started desperately flailing her arm about for it.

Where was the freaking pistol?!

"Those people were killed... By a motherfucking **kid**!" He was going to choke her to death. Or maybe he would...

No.

The pistol was out of reach.

This time she couldn't win. Not without a gun. Not without her switchblade. Not without Tess.

She couldn't die here. Not like this. But she couldn't do anything about it.

"And, now, I'm gonna kill you." A sadistic grin was plastered on the hunter's face. "You're dead, you little _bitch_!"

Bang, bang.

More blood tainted Ellie's features as the man's head exploded above her. His body collapsed on top of her own. He was dead.

The girl jumped after a couple of seconds and pushed him off of her, then clumsily lifted herself up. In front of her stood her saviour, Tess, holding her revolver. She looked pissed.

"Tess!" Ellie cried out, stepping towards her. "Oh, my God... Thanks... so much, I... I don't know what to..." She spoke hurriedly between breaths, but eventually calmed down. She looked at Tess with an exhausted, relieved and grateful expression. "I mean... thanks for saving my ass. I don't know what would've happened if you didn't show up when you did..."

She knew.

"You would have died, that's what'd happen." Tess spoke vehemently, brown eyes glaring intensely. She seemed a little beat up herself, and Ellie guessed that was why she was so angry. "What the hell did you do, Ellie?"

"I just... got distracted, and then you were gone, and this guy grabbed me-"

"I'm not talking about that." Tess interrupted her. "I'm asking you what the hell happened when you were supposed to be keeping watch."

Ellie's eyes widened in disbelief.

"Wha- It wasn't my fault the hunters got in, I did what you told me to!" She glared right back up at her.

Tess almost laughed sarcastically.

"You're right, it wasn't your fault. It was my fault for leaving my life in the hands of a goddamn _kid_." She uttered, grabbing Ellie's hand and taking her over to the fallen ladder. "Let's just fucking go."

"You know what? No." The girl yanked her hand away. "How about, 'Hey, Ellie, I know it wasn't easy, but I'm really proud of you for making it out of there on your own. I'm glad your okay'?" Ellie went on, eyes blazing furiously. "You got anything like that for me, Tess?"

Tess just ignored her.

"We're going, Ellie." She said, picking up the ladder and leaning it against the wall. "Come on." Her voice was much calmer than a few seconds ago.

It was clear Ellie wasn't getting anything out of her. No apology, no thank you. And she just had to deal with that.

They weren't friends. Tess was simply a means to an end, nothing more.


	6. Ch 5: Faults

It was evident that even when Tess tried to act as they normally had together while finding a way out of the hotel, Ellie was interested in doing anything _but_ cooperating. She was deliberately walking slower than usual, keeping her distance from Tess, and refused to help make a path for them, sarcastically saying that she would "just get them killed somehow". Even though she appreciated the silence, Tess found this rather irritating, silently wishing for her luck to kick in and make Ellie stop pouting like a child over something that was her own fault. Sadly, her luck ran out weeks ago, so anyone's attitude changing wasn't something that was going to happen very soon.

When they finally did find and exit out of the hotel and into the fresh air and sunlight, the way was filled with more hunters. They hadn't seen them yet - Tess acted instinctively to tell Ellie to hide behind the balcony wall, doing so herself - and there was a rifle left by some poor dead fellow whose corpse was leaning against a wall near them. Maybe they _were_ lucky again; the rifle happened to have quite a few bullets left in it.

Here comes the downside.

With all the barricades and trucks around for them to use as cover, at least one hunter would be able to reach them from up there. Tess mumbled profanities under her breath before trying to come up with some kind of plan.

She'd just have to go down there and kill them up close and personal.

"Ellie." Tess whispered to the young girl whose blood covered face was scrunched up in a pout. "I'm gonna go down there and clear us a path. You don't move a muscle, don't make a sound, okay?"

Ellie didn't think it was okay.

"This is bullshit, we'd have more of a fucking chance if you'd just let me kill some of these assholes!" She half whispered, half shouted. Tess looked at her sternly.

"I can't trust you with a gun after what happened. So you are gonna stay here, be fucking quiet, and not touch that." She pointed at the rifle, which she would have taken away and out of Ellie's reach if she had a holster for it. If she tried to take it now, it'd be an uncomfortable burden. "Don't touch."

She could only hope that the girl would obey her.

"Pfh... and how are you gonna stop me?" Ellie muttered as she watched Tess climb down from the balcony, and moved towards the rifle once she was out of sight.

She could only hope.

* * *

Tess managed to take out quite a few of the hunters by herself without being directly seen, which she saw as an extra good thing as if any of them recognised her, they just might've gotten more aggressive. There was a _lot_ of them though, and she might - just might - have gotten overwhelmed if Ellie hadn't disobeyed her and shot down at least a quarter of them. Tess was pissed off for sure, and while she knew she should have been grateful, she pushed any of those thoughts out of her mind. If she softened up about that girl again, Ellie could end up almost getting them _killed_ again. When all the hunters were dead, Tess waited patiently for her with a scowl on her face, ready to tell her off once again.

Ellie walked over to Tess casually, and placed her hands on her hips when she stopped in front of her, prepared for the lecture she was about to get. She had a frown on her face that she couldn't help, wanting to be thanked even though she knew she wouldn't. Tess was never going to see her as an equal, it looked like. No matter how hard she tried to impress, no matter how good she was at anything, Ellie would always be nothing but a goddamn kid to her.

"What'd I say?" Tess asked sharply, looking her in the eyes disapprovingly. Ellie returned the look.

"Don't touch."

"And what the hell did you do?"

"I saved your fucking life." She walked past her towards one of the abandoned buildings to scavenge, glaring at Tess as she did so with a glint of hurt in her eyes.

Tess rubbed her eyes and sighed tiredly, going off to do the same thing.

"I'm tired of this crap." She mumbled under her breath.

* * *

Little to no conversation occupying the unwelcoming atmosphere continued, as Ellie was still angry with Tess, and Tess was still angry with Ellie. The latter almost considered not telling the former about a note she found stating that the hunters had - get this - a fucking _tank_, but, her common sense advised her against it as that would likely get them _both_ killed.

Tess' mood was lifted slightly when she noticed that the bridge was looking a bit closer, and she estimated that they'd be able to get there within a couple of days or so if they just kept going. The distraction of her thoughts almost got her killed as they entered an area that was filled with even more of _them_, even though the hunters just seemed to be hanging about and having their lunch. Ellie was the one to alert her of their presence, and pulled her escort to hide behind a truck so they were out of the sniper's sight.

It was another frustrating battle for Ellie who had to settle for throwing bricks and bottles at the hunters and luring them towards their own traps which she would explode with the use of more of said materials, provided that she and Tess were a safe distance away. She was getting good at the strategy thing, and was quite happy with herself about that. She wished Tess was happy about it, too.

Ellie stifled a sigh as she watched Tess skilfully take out the hunters one by one. She was focused, strategic and most notably ruthless, blowing up their heads with her shotgun instantly of she thought they were getting too close, and viciously beating them with a pipe if any of them managed to grab Ellie. Though she would hate to admit it, Ellie admired Tess in the way that she knew she was a complete and utter badass, having survived this long. But surviving this long meant she had to be some kind of heartless as well, something the girl had been reminded of a lot in recent events, and was about to be reminded of again.

Tess ended a couple more hunters with her rifle before having to reload again, but the urgency of the situation increased as one of them was making their way towards the two more quickly than she would have preferred. Ellie ran away behind some barricades, searching around it desperately for something to throw.

"Shit... Oh, shit!" Tess yelled in frustration before deciding "fuck it", and replacing her rifle with her shotgun. But, by the time she'd done that, the hunter was close enough to hit her, and close enough to recognise her.

"Tess? Tess...?! No _fucking_ way!" The hunter's eyes widened and his jaw dropped when he recognised her. He let his guard down completely, and those words he uttered became his last when Tess fired her shotgun in his face at point-blank range. A brick flew into his headless body milliseconds afterwards.

"Ellie?"

"Um..."

"Behind this car, now."

Ellie nodded, and ran towards her and into cover as fast as possible. She refrained from asking about what the hunter said, as it wasn't really the time for talking.

Tess was hoping she could carry on killing them like nothing happened, but the others had already heard, and a few had been involved with Pittsburgh's hunters long enough to have known her. They didn't seem intent on shutting up about it, either.

"I don't really know if it is you, Tess, but if it is... Then, fuck. It's good to see you again, bitch." One of them called. Tess effortlessly put an end to him, and pitied him only slightly for having such shitty last words.

"You haven't changed a bit, asshole!"

"Well, forgive me for being an asshole." She replied, putting yet another bullet in another head.

It was kind of sad, really.

"You crazy bitch, I knew we should've hung you when you-"

"Fuck off."

Bang. Dead.

Though, Tess supposed that not many people got to say very memorable things before dying these days.

* * *

Ellie stepped carefully around the hunters' corpses once they'd finished looting and scavenging, noticing that almost each and every one of them either had a messed up face, or no face at all.

She looked up at the culprit with narrowed, inquisitive eyes, but let her expression soften when she saw Tess looking a bit less angry with her than she had been.

"I know what you're gonna ask me, so just go ahead." She shrugged with a sigh. Ellie gazed at the bodies one more time before asking.

"So... you used to be one of them? A hunter?" She felt slightly bad about the distasteful way the word came out, making it sound like she was accusing her of murder. Which, she supposed, she had.

"Yeah, I... Yes, I was." Tess nodded, her dark eyes carrying a strong feeling of regret and sorrow. "I killed a lot of innocent people." Her voice held the same vibe.

"Oh." Said Ellie, unsure of whether she should tell her "it's alright" or something like that, but knew she had to say _something_ about it. She opened her mouth to speak, but was cut off.

"If we keep moving we can get to the bridge in a day or two, so c'mon." Tess called her with a grim-sounding voice as she started walking off. Ellie shrugged her shoulders.

"Lead the way."

* * *

It was another long period of walking that made Ellie's kneecaps feel like they were about to turn into sand. She was itching to pull out her joke book, but due to the things that had happened that day, she decided it was inappropriate. She did, however, attempt to communicate with Tess by asking her about the many things she saw around the quarantine zone, and was replied to much to her pleasant surprise. Although, the answers and the things themselves were quite depressing, and Ellie found herself thanking her lucky stars for not letting her go through the downfall of a quarantine zone, or witnessing one of their brutal punishments. As her knowledge was almost entirely made up of facts about a society that no longer existed, she realised there was a whole world of cruelty and madness that she still had much to learn about.

Ellie wiped her dirty shoes on the floor of the café she was waiting for Tess to finish searching. She walked over to the counter and scanned the menu on the wall above it. Written on it in faded chalk was what seemed like a thousand different names of coffees and alcoholic drinks she didn't recognise. She ended up looking through cupboards for any coffee that was left behind. Even if it had expired decades ago, she still wanted a taste. She didn't think it was healthy to only be eating canned fruit, and, even though coffee technically wasn't food, she _still_ wanted a taste.

Tess pulled her backpack on after making some shiv and bombs with the materials she'd found and stretched her arms, staring out the window with a bleak expression. She stayed there for a while, trying to think of words to cheer herself up about the unpleasant social situation she was in, but to no avail. She glanced over at Ellie, who accidentally met eyes with her and quickly looked back at whatever she was observing before, as though her face was painful to look at. Though Ellie's wasn't exactly eye candy at the moment, either. She still had bruises, cuts and blood all over, making it difficult for one to know it was really her from a distance. Tess felt a pang of guilt in her heart; she wasn't joking or lying when she said it was her fault for leaving Ellie to watch for hunters. _She_ let this happen to her - the poor girl almost died just because _she_ was tired. It wasn't Ellie's fault. She was just a kid.

Tess rubbed her tired eyes and made her way over to the girl to tell her to move it, but stopped in her tracks when she heard the distinct sound of shoes against concrete.

More hunters.

"Ellie." She whispered, catching the teenager's attention. She mouthed the word "hunters" and Ellie nodded firmly in understanding, following her behind the counter.

Tess listened carefully for the hunters, and heard two walking in, one with notably heavier footsteps than the other. That one spoke to his friend out loud about looking for anything useful, making him easier to locate. But, he was coming to look in the cupboards right behind the very counter where _they_ were, and Tess could feel the frantic worry emanating from Ellie without even looking at her.

Tess pulled out her revolver, and looked to Ellie who nodded to tell her she needed to.

She took a deep breath, and adjusted her position so she was facing the side the hunter would be coming from. As soon as she saw his feet, she rose to hers immediately and pulled the trigger. She watched him yelp and grab his bleeding arm, and was about to shoot him again when Ellie pulled one of her arms, screaming at her.

"Tess, stop! Look!"

"What the fuck are you-"

A bullet flew past Tess' head, nearly killing her. When she quickly turned to whoever fired it, her gaze fell on a young boy with a pistol in hands, wide eyes filled with apprehension and terror. He had to be about the same age as Ellie.

"He has a kid!" Ellie yelled anxiously, pulling Tess' gun out of her hands. They turned back to the kid's presumed guardian who grunted as he approached the younger one, calming him with the most gentle voice he could.

"Put the gun down, Sam, it's okay." He looked Tess in the eyes understandingly; she was only protecting her kid, and that was good enough for him. "They're not the bad guys."


End file.
